The Haunting of Hill House

Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House.

A Stir of Echoes

Tom Wallace lived an ordinary life, until a chance event awakened psychic abilities he never knew he possessed. Now, he's hearing the private thoughts of the people around him - and learning shocking secrets he never wanted to know. But as Tom's existence becomes a waking nightmare, even greater jolts are in store, as he becomes the unwilling recipient of a compelling message from beyond the grave.

The Elementals

After a bizarre and disturbing incident at the funeral of matriarch Marian Savage, the McCray and Savage families look forward to a restful and relaxing summer at Beldame, on Alabama's Gulf Coast, where three Victorian houses loom over the shimmering beach. Two of the houses are habitable, while the third is slowly and mysteriously being buried beneath an enormous dune of blindingly white sand. But though long uninhabited, the third house is not empty. Inside, something deadly lies in wait.

Ghost Story

For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past - and get away with murder. Peter Straub's classic best seller is a work of "superb horror" (Washington Post Book World) that, like any good ghost story, stands the test of time - and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.

Return To Hell House

In 1927 the infamous millionaire occultist Emeric Belasco disappeared without a trace, leaving behind dozens of dead bodies in the rambling, isolated mansion known as Hell House. In 1931 a team of parapsychologists entered Hell House in order to solve the riddle of Belasco's fate, only to meet with horror, insanity and death.

The Amityville Horror

In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. George and Kathleen Lutz knew that, one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in the house, but the property - complete with boathouse and swimming pool - and the price were too good to pass up. This is the shocking true story of an American dream that turned into a nightmare beyond imagining for the Lutz family, who were forced to flee their new home in terror.

Burnt Offerings: Valancourt 20th Century Classics

Ben and Marian Rolfe are desperate to escape a stifling summer in their tiny Brooklyn apartment, so when they get the chance to rent a mansion in upstate New York for the entire summer for only $900, it's an offer that's too good to refuse. There's only one catch: behind a strange and intricately carved door in a distant wing of the house lives elderly Mrs. Allardyce, and the Rolfes will be responsible for preparing her meals. But Mrs. Allardyce never seems to emerge from her room, and it soon becomes clear that something weird and terrifying is happening in the house.

The Boylan House Trilogy

For nearly three and a half centuries, the Boylan House has stood at the end of Meeting House Road. And something in that house has been killing boys for centuries. The town of Monson is a quaint and quiet New England town. Yet the house is terrifying and has been for as long as anyone can remember. Adults put the thing out of mind and ignore the fears of their children, admonishing them to stay away.

The Exorcist: 40th Anniversary Edition

Four decades after it first shook the nation, then the world, William Peter Blatty's thrilling masterwork of faith and demonic possession returns in an even more powerful form. Raw and profane, shocking and blood-chilling, it remains a modern parable of good and evil and perhaps the most terrifying novel ever written.

Cold Moon over Babylon: Valancourt 20th Century Classics

Welcome to Babylon, a typical sleepy Alabama small town, where years earlier the Larkin family suffered a terrible tragedy. Now they are about to endure another: 14-year-old Margaret Larkin will be robbed of her innocence and her life by a killer who is beyond the reach of the law. But something strange is happening in Babylon: traffic lights flash an eerie blue, a ghostly hand slithers from the drain of a kitchen sink, graves erupt from the local cemetery in an implacable march of terror.

Hex

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a 17th-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's beds for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened, or the consequences will be too terrible to bear.

Heart-Shaped Box

Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, a thing so terrible-strange, Jude can't help but reach for his wallet. For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost. It's the real thing.

The Sentinel

Aspiring model Allison Parker finally moves into her dream apartment: a brownstone on Manhattan's Upper West Side. But her perfect home quickly turns hellish. The building is filled with a cast of sinister tenants, including a reclusive blind priest, who seems to watch her day and night through an upstairs window. Eventually, Allison starts hearing strange noises from the empty apartment above hers. Before long, she uncovers the building's demonic secret and is plunged into a nightmare of sinful misdeeds.

Lineage: A Supernatural Thriller

Pain, horror, fear - these are the things that have comprised best-selling novelist Lance Metzger's life. His childhood remains a riddled wasteland of abuse by a sadistic father and abandonment by an apathetic mother. In turn his only refuge became his writing. When Lance loses his ability to write and becomes haunted by a nightmare that he'd thought was buried, he is drawn inexplicably to a house on the shores of Lake Superior, where he finds his muse once again - but something is waiting for him when he arrives.

Certain Dark Things

In her debut short story collection, M.J. Pack offers up a new breed of terror sure to delight any true horror fan. Don’t miss out on tales of telepathic twins, a campfire ghost story gone terribly wrong, pills that induce life-threatening nightmares, and the disturbing new sideshow at Coney Island: Lady Alligator. Take a haunting trip down infamous Bubblehead Road and follow Danny around the country as he’s pursued by unseen (and unrelenting) creatures.

The Haunting of Blackwood House

Could you survive a week in a haunted house? Mara is the daughter of spiritualists. Her childhood was filled with seances, scam mediums and talk of ghostly presences. When Mara finally left her family's home, she vowed she would never allow superstition or false religion into her life again. Now she's ready to start over with her fiance, Neil, in a world based on rationality and facts. But her past isn't ready to let her go just yet.

A Winter Haunting

A once-respected college professor and novelist, Dale Stewart has sabotaged his career and his marriage - and now darkness is closing in on him. In the last hours of Halloween, he has returned to the dying town of Elm Haven, his boyhood home, where he hopes to find peace in isolation.

Carrion Comfort

The Past...Caught behind the lines of Hitler’s Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face-to-face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazis themselves...

A Head Full of Ghosts

The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when 14-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession.

The Eaton

Spanning over 100 years of mid-Michigan history, The Eaton tells the story of Sam Spicer, a young entrepreneur who purchases the dilapidated Michigan Central Railroad Depot in Eaton Rapids with the dream of opening a hot new martini bar. But when he and his friends discover an abandoned underground hotel directly beneath the property, they must discover what happened to the original guests—before their own time runs out.

The Girl Next Door

Suburbia. Shady, tree-lined streets; well-tended lawns; and cozy homes. A nice, quiet place to grow up. Unless you are teenage Meg or her crippled sister, Susan. On a dead-end street, in the dark, damp basement of the Chandler house, Meg and Susan are left captive to the savage whims and rages of a distant aunt who is rapidly descending into madness. It is a madness that infects all three of her sons and finally the entire neighborhood. Only one troubled boy stands hesitantly between Meg and Susan and their cruel, torturous deaths.

The Haunted: One Family's Nightmare: Ed & Lorraine Warren, Book 3

The world's most famous demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were called in to help an average American family who were assaulted by forces too awesome, too powerful, and too dark to be stopped. It's a true story, supported by dozens of eyewitnesses - neighbors, priests, police, journalists, and researchers.

What Dreams May Come

What happens to us after we die? Chris Nielsen had no idea, until an unexpected accident cut his life short, separating him from his beloved wife, Annie. Now Chris must discover the true nature of life after death. But even Heaven is not complete without Annie, and the divided soul mates will do anything to reach each other across the boundaries between life and death. When tragedy threatens to divide them forever, Chris risks his very soul to save Annie from an eternity of despair.

Publisher's Summary

For over 20 years, Belasco House has stood empty. Regarded as the Mt. Everest of haunted houses, its shadowed walls have witnessed scenes of unimaginable horror and depravity. All previous attempts to probe its mysteries have ended in murder, suicide, or insanity.

But now, a new investigation has been launched, bringing four strangers to Belasco House in search of the ultimate secrets of life and death. A wealthy publisher, brooding over his impending death, has paid a physicist and two mediums to establish the facts of life after death once and for all. For one night, they will investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townsfolk refer to it as the Hell House.

Hell House, which inspired the 1973 film The Legend of Hell House, is Matheson's most frightening and shocking book, and an acknowledged classic of the genre.

Richard Matheson was an underrated novelist. He wrote fast-paced works, visual and visceral, full of philosophical questions and characters facing the unknown.

My favorite is "I Am Legend," but "Hell House" turned out to be a very exciting and scary read. Four people enter a haunted house to prove to a millionaire that there's life after death, or that there isn't. Like all good haunted houses, Hell House is a character in itself. It has everything--creaking rocking chairs, deserted rooms, a Satanist chapel, awful smells.

There are other surprises, mostly of the psychosexual variety, as each of the characters faces fear, insecurity, and blinding personal shame. Matheson describes all of this very well, sometimes in terms that were more explicit than I had expected. This book is definitely rated R, or possibly NC-17--no cute lil ghosts in white sheets here.

But there are lots of good scares, and that's what I go to a haunted house book for. Unlike Matheson's other works, this one had slow spots and was a bit repetetive in places. The narrator did probably the best job out of any book I've listened to from Audible--seriously, with two male and two female voices, and various ghosts, I always knew who was speaking.

Checking the dates of publication to be sure I was right that Hell House is a sort of pastiche or homage or even plagarism of "The Haunting of Hill House," I saw this opening sentence in Wikipedia that says it all:

"Hell House is a novel by American novelist Richard Matheson, published in 1971. The novel has significant similarities to the earlier work The Haunting of Hill House (1959) by Shirley Jackson, though rendered with much more violence and sexual imagery."

He beefed it up, basically. You could even say coarsened it and simplified it --- but in fact both novels are quite good. I suppose you could call it a remake! Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" is of course much scarier, because it deals with madness and human fragility as well as whatever haunts Hill House, and Audible has an excellent reading of it. Matheson uses the same set-up, the same basic scene and the same four basic characters -- six, really, counting the two cook/caretakers.

Shirley Jackson achieves true horror. Chilling, ghastly, oh-no horror, with never an indelicate word or scene. Its opening and closing paragraphs are famous. Matheson's Hell House is more conventional and less truly terrifying, despite a lot of Sturm und Drang. It is the Matheson book that was made into a great movie, "The Legend of Hell House," one of the scariest movies ever made, I thought as a girl.

The reading of this novel by Ray Porter is excellent. There are a lot of scary emotional scenes and the reader does well with them, and with character differentiation. I think both books are well worth listening to, for themselves and for the really instructive differences.

If you like horror novels like I do, you're probably disappointed with the appalling lack of truly scary stories on the market these days. It seems all the horror novelists of the past have gone "soft" (Stephen King, Peter Straub, etc.)
"Hell House", while written a long time ago, is still a very frightening novel, and one of the best ghost stories I've read.
The graphic descriptions of the house and the events inside are truly scary. There are several other books that have been written along the same theme (several people trapped inside a haunted house), but this book seems to be more intelligent than the others.
A very smart listen, and the narrator performed well, making good distinctions between male and female voices, even the voices of the ghosts were well done.
This book was a nice surprise and a good listen, certainly more than I was expecting.

I've always loved Hell House. I've read it twice in book form, and I think I enjoyed it most listening to it on my third journey to the Belasco House. Believable and truly frightening, Hell House is a horror story to be savored. While the movie based on the book (The Legend of Hell House) is enjoyable, I hope that a more faithful version is made someday. This remains my favorite Halloween read!

Where does Hell House rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is definitely one of my top 10. The story is gruesome and at times sacrilegious, and it's nice to get into a story that isn't afraid to pull punches. Because every lurid detail is explained, the horror is that much more effective.

What other book might you compare Hell House to and why?

The only one that comes to mind immediately is "The Haunting of Hill House." However, "Hill House" doesn't so much scare as it does intrigue. "Hell House," on the other hand, paints some pretty horrific pictures.

What about Ray Porter’s performance did you like?

He performed without having to do any silly voices, a bad habit among many narrators that immediately takes me out of the story.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I can't for the life of me think of a tag line. But, I would definitely like to see an adaptation of this film beyond the one starring Roddy Mcdowall. I'd love to see a film that keeps all the gruesome scenes and disturbing images.

Any additional comments?

Richard Matheson is a master storyteller. He created a house that I personally want to explore.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The Legend of Hell House is a 1973 British horror film

Any additional comments?

The book was just as scary as the movie when I first saw it. The narrator Ray Porter was exceptional in making the characters believable and his discriptions were so vivid of the times and events in the book. I would highly recommend this book as a listen if you love suspense or horror. The book is very graphic and I would not recommend it to the weak.

If you're a fan of Shirley Jackson's classic 'The Haunting of Hill House' and the excellent movie version (1963's 'The Haunting,' not the ridiculous 1999 remake) then you are someone who appreciates a subtle crawl of horror, the kind that creeps up on you slowly, revealing itself in shifting shadows and creaking stairs. To my mind, there has rarely been a more chilling moment in fiction than the scene in 'The Haunting of Hill House' where two women are terrorized by the sight of a slowly turning doorknob - and the knowledge that no living soul is on the other side of that door.

Should the same event take place in Richard Matheson's 'Hell House,' you can be assured that the doorknob wouldn't just turn, but would be wrenched from the door by a shrieking wraith, who would then hurl it at your eye. That's the kind of haunted-house novel you have in 'Hell House': not subtle enough to catch you off-guard, so never truly horrifying; but entertaining, fast paced, and sometimes brutally shocking.

The similar premise makes comparisons to 'The Haunting' inevitable: several strangers gather in a reputedly haunted mansion, either as subjects of a study (in Jackson's book) or to study and document evidence of the paranormal. As tensions and jealousies emerge among these men and women, they seem to incite the supernatural occurrences they were supposed to observe.

Without Jackson's deft hand at psychological horror, Matheson resorts to sex, violence, violent sex, and over-the-top spookhouse thrills. In the hands of the wrong voice talent, the audiobook might have been hard to sit through.

Enter narrator Ray Porter, who saves the day (albeit a fog-shrouded day on an isolated Maine estate). Porter's female characters take some getting used to, and may come across as weaker or sillier than they were written, simply as a function of the actor trying to feminize their voices. The two men in the group are well acted and distinctively voiced. But where Porter really shines is when he gives life - so to speak - to the Evil that haunts Hell House. As the spirit of the mansion's long-dead owner, Emeric Belasco, Ray Porter is challenged to scream, blaspheme, taunt and torture his way through the most effective chapters of the book. He does a fine job, and makes nasty Belasco the star of this ghastly house party.

Heartily recommended for your next 10-hour drive, though preferably not through an eerie Maine woodland.

Richard Matheson is a master of subtlety! Hell House invites you into its' madness and doesn't release you to the very end. As the characters approach the house, the feeling of doom is almost palpable. Matheson's proficiency at weaving simile and metaphor to tingle your spine is genius. The author wrote a masterpiece of horror without having to revert to gore instead relying on imagery a craft Matheson's knows all to well.

I think if you remember this book when it was release (I think sometimes in the 70s) then you may be nostalgic for it.

What didn’t you like about Ray Porter’s performance?

It was all a bit flat for my liking.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I found it a bit boring to be honest and didn't manage to finish.

Any additional comments?

From the reviews I'd read I thought this would suit me, a good scarey horror story with an extra dollop of 70s sauce. However I was never scared and could easily listen in bed with the lights off. Tried about 3 hours and the story never really got going for me.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Sue

Verwood, Dorset, United Kingdom

10/4/09

Overall

"Gripping stuff"

I really enjoyed this book and so wanted to hear more that I took the long way home on more than one occasion so I could get a few extra minutes in. It is well written and the dynamics between the characters are presented clearly. The story unfolds at a pleasing rate and each aspect is brought into play well.

The narration is good although there were some unexpected pauses but it was placed well, clear, the characters well defined and the other 'people' in the book were easily told apart.

I was impressed overall and will certainly be checking out more by this author. As mentioned in another review, the content of Hell House can be somewhat graphic but it is integral to the story, not gratuitous for shock value.

11 of 14 people found this review helpful

Sara

Llanwrtyd wells, United Kingdom

6/30/09

Overall

"Excellent listen"

I really enjoyed this book. It had a great story and good interplay between the four characters that enter the house. Not overly scary by today?s standards although it does keep you interested from start to finish. Passionately narrated.

I would warn anyone intending to listen to this book that it contains material of a sexually explicit nature and also graphic language. This book is not for people who are offended by this sort of thing, as it permeates most of the book. Personally, I think that for a book titled 'Hell House' and with the reputation that it has, it would be naive to be shocked to hear the occasional expletive or references to sexual violence - As a horror book, this is not gratuitous, but part of the story.

8 of 11 people found this review helpful

Sara

Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom

3/4/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Not for me"

I was after a scary book but didn't feel this book achieved that - some scenes were nauseating but not frightening.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Fran

UK

11/26/10

Overall

"Horror that creeps into you"

I really loved this audiobook. Despite the fact it starts quite abruptly and doesn't seem to bother with a credible build up of the story (5 minutes and they are already in the haunted house)I was sucked into the horror vortex of this story so much that I am still dreaming about it on occasion.
A traditional haunted house with a modern phychologial theme- perverted sexuality. And even though there are only a few expicit desriptions in the book, the whole atmosphere is like a dense, grey fog that creeps into every crook and cranny of your mind. (to the point where I started associating my own office, where I listenend to the book, with hell house and was quite creeped out by it.)
The ending is built up to be this great revelation, which I wasn't blown away by. But despite all that, I loved it and will put it on my list of my top 5 haunted house stories.The narration is absolutely wonderful and adds gallons of drama and intensity to every situation. I can still hear the cold, mean and mocking voice of the owner of hell house.... You should try it!
PS: Only for people who are not sensitive about religion!

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

jennifer

alfreton, United Kingdom

2/19/11

Overall

"hell house richard matheson"

A true horror story enjoyed this very much very creepy,makes you feel very uneasy at times,i listened to this why working on a night shift,made me feel very spooked,its great when a book makes you feel like that

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

Claudia Duncan

4/1/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Haven't seen writing this bad since 50 shades!"

What disappointed you about Hell House?

Absolutely vile piece of writing. The plot itself just isn't scary, I expected something along the lines of house on haunted hill etc, I mean it seemed pretty formulaic - group of people one skeptic, one nervous person tagging along, two strong characters go to a known haunted house and wait for something to happen but what followed was a demonstration of sex over plot and substance getting clearing from a publishing house.

What was most disappointing about Richard Matheson’s story?

The token lesbianism that is thrown in when the story starts to falter is just ludicrous. I think my housemate overhearing it as I was cooking and asking me, "what c**p are you listening to?!" is a pretty good indication that it really was appalling.

Which character – as performed by Ray Porter – was your favourite?

Impossible to say, I felt all the characters were poorly written and hard to emphasise with. I suppose I like the jaded psychic until I realised he was just there as a juxtaposition to the others and didn't actually bring anything to the story.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Anger and melancholy that I had listened to it the whole way through and wasted a credit.

Any additional comments?

I realise this book has had great reviews, in fact I chose this book over another title BECAUSE of the reviews but in my opinion it is awfully written. It isn't scary so you WILL be able to sleep at night, or if you are intrigued by the references to sex other reviewers have mentioned; don't waste your money, like everything in the book, things that start do not get finished (read that as you will!) and you would be better off looking at the "adult" business cards in your local phone box for better content and substance!

2 of 5 people found this review helpful

s

LONDON, United Kingdom

8/17/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Bit Dull, nothing happened till Chapter 15"

My first horror book, was expecting a bit of trill but nothing really. Just at the end few interesting things happened. To be honest wasn't worth the time and money. The Title sounded great.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Harleen

London

7/18/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"An intense listen"

Any additional comments?

This was a great audiobook, but I found it pretty intense in some places and some scenes were pretty grim! It's a highly sexual and sexually charged book, and if you love the classic combo of sex and horror you'll love this.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

Mr B.Kirk

Brigstowe, Uk

1/19/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Thoroughly enjoyable"

Any additional comments?

Did I enjoy this audio book - yes, I wanted a good ghost story for Christmas and I got one. Well read. Occassionally you are at the right point in life to listen to something, if I had listened to this a year ago for example I may not of enjoyed it - but I got this at the right time and it was spot on.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

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